Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Guru's College Report: Black Friday Turns Bleak For Rutgers in Loss To LSU in Brooklyn

(Guru’s
note: A game story on the tournament is also appearing on hoopfeed.com)

By
Mel Greenberg

BROOKLYN,
N.Y. –Black Friday, so-called for being a shopper’s delight, became
Bleak Friday for the Rutgers women’s basketball team here at the still
relatively new arena home of the NBA New York Nets.

Chalk up the
Scarlet Knights’ narrow 69-65 loss to No. 15 LSU in the opening round of the
Barclays Center Women’s Invitational Friday afternoon as a missed opportunity
and now Rutgers (4-2) will try to avoid the whole weekend from being a disaster
when Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer’s squad meets Texas Tech (3-2) Saturday
night in the consolation game.

In the title
game, Michigan (5-2), guided by former St. John’s coach Kim Barnes Arico, now
in her second season with the Wolverines of the Big Ten, will play the Tigers (5-1)
of the Southeastern Conference after beating Texas Tech 82-71.

Rutgers
could have used a signature win that playing the Tigers offered for a myriad of
reasons:

-The first to help erase the bad taste from
less than two weeks ago when the Scarlet Knights were shocked at lowly
Massachusetts.

- The second the fact that they beat just one
ranked team a year ago in a short-lived Miami appearance in the Associated
Press women’s poll and not many others in immediate preceding seasons since the
glory years of who are now the esteemed alumni stars in the WNBA.

- Third,
unless, South Florida or someone else rises to ranking prominence, following
the LSU contest there are just three other teams and five other chances in
regular season to beat elite opponents and two of those come home-and-home in
conference against top-ranked Connecticut and No. 4 Louisville.

The other is
Georgia of the Southeastern Conference, which visits Dec. 21.

A year ago
when Rutgers got taken down by lowly Seton Hall, the in-state rival under the
old Big East not on the schedule for this season, the local media buzzards were
quick to start paying attention to Stringer’s contract, which is in its final
season and still not finalized and renewed in terms of the future.

This time
around she has been able to dodge the locals so far, not by her doing, but by
the fact that given the dwindling newspaper print staffs who are busy
concentrating on matters Rutgers football, for the first time in the Guru’s
memory none of them have been around the past two games, including the
tourney’s opening round Friday.

A win over
the Tigers (5-1), whose only loss has been to Rutgers’ American Conference
rival Louisville, would have been reduced last week’s mishap as one of those
things.

In fact,
Stringer said afterwards here that one of the reasons the nonconference
schedule isn’t its usual beefy self was to build confidence on a young team
that lacks seniors

But that
same youth proved to be Rutgers’ undoing Friday, committing 29 turnovers,
including 17 in the first half, against a team that was missing two starting
guards who were suspended for a game after being ejected for fighting last week
during a win over in-state rival Louisiana Tech.

Incidentally,
WNBA Connecticut Sun coach Anne Donovan, who could end up with the overall No.
1 pick and at worst No. 4, was on the scene.

Stringer
said there were mental breakdowns, though different than the ones in the UMass
loss, that one being lackadaisical over playing a lowly-regarded opponent and
not finding energy to get the job done.

In this one,
Rutgers mounted several surges that seemed promising only to have LSU cut them
off before any damage could occur.

Stringer
said some mistakes may have come from nervousness and excitement over playing a
quality opponent as LSU.

One piece of
good news was the return of Betnijah Laney, out the last two games with a right
ankle sprain, and she scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds, but also
committed eight of the turnovers.

But on the
other side freshman Raigyne Moncrief was a game-saver with 27 points, seven
rebounds and three assists, while shooting 15-for-20 from the line – second
best in LSU history behind one Pokey Chatman, who later coached her alma mater
and is now in charge of the WNBA Chicago Sky.

Overall, LSU
was 23-for-33 on the line versus 14-for-19 for the Scarlet Knights.

Back in the
famous 2006-07 season that began with landslide losses but ended with a trip to
the national title game, as unseemly it was at the time, there was enough
talent and an upper class teaching core steeped in Stringer’s tradition to turn
things around by mid-season.

The talent
is there this time but as noted, elders are in short supply. But the season
isn’t necessarily a wash yet.

What is
interesting is that Stringer alluded in the postgame press conference that she
actually had been spending more time on offense than defense and perhaps it
might be time to go back to what has carried the day in the past.

The schedule
is greased enough to create traction as it was in the middle of the 2007-07
season. But whether history can repeat itself remains to be seen, though it is
not impossible.

Stay tuned.

Hot
Shooting Holeman Keeps Villanova Unbeaten

The unbeaten Wildcats crushed Montana
State 79-54 State in the opening round of the Florida International
Thanksgiving Classic as Taylor Holeman was a perfect 8-for-8 fron the field in
the tournament in Miami and finished with a career-high 17 points.

The Bobcat fell to 3-2.

Holeman became the first Villanova
player to be perfect on separate nights shooting 7-for-7 last season against
DePaul. She also had a career high 10 rebounds for her first double double

Pistol Devon Kane made her first
seven shots and finished with 16 points.

Villanova was one of six teams in the
new Big East to go 5-0 against outside foes as Xavier topped Kansas, Butler
beat Utah, Marquette beat

Tennessee Tech, and Seton Hall beat
Savannah State.

The 6-0 start by the Wildcats matches
their best since a similar launch to the 2002-03 season that resulted in a run
to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament and now the Wildcats will look to
take a second invitational tournament this season when they meet the host
Panthers Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Penn State Rallies Down in the Bahamas

The No. 13
Lady Lions (4-1) down in Freeport, Bahama, at the Junkanoo Jam Freeport
Division, rallied from an early deficit to beat Oregon State 61-56 by using a
22-3 run across the two halves to erase an early nine-point deficit

It was the
first loss of the season for the Beavers (4-1) of the Pac-12 conference.

The win
sends PSU into Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. title contest against Illinois State (1-3)

Narberth’s
Maggie Lucas, a senior and reigning Big Ten player of the year, scored 17
points for the Lady Lions.

Jamie
Weisner and Samantha Siegner each scored 14 points for Oregon State while
Siegner also completed a double double with 10 rebounds.

Catching
Up

Since the
Guru ran into technical issues and didn’t post the Temple-Michigan State game,
which he attended, and add Saint Joseph’s-Princeton to that roundup, here’s
info for the record, though you may have gotten it else.

Temple had a
lead and played competitively at home in McGonigle Hall competitively to the No.
21 Spartans but foul trouble was the Owls’ undoing leading to their first loss
74-70 despite having led at several junctures.

Freshman
Feyonda Fitzgerald had a career high 24 points for Temple (3-1) against
Michigan State (5-1) of the Big Ten while Tyonna Williams had 14 points and
Erica Coville scored 11.

“We knew
what we had here and what we were doing,” she continued. “But this was one we
let slip away. We had a really good team come in here and we played pretty good
basketball and down the stretch when we needed to make big plays and make key
stops, we didn’t. It’s just unfortunate but Michigan State has a lot of guys
who can score, shoot and put the ball on the floor. It’s going to be hard to
win basketball games when you put a team on the line to shoot 36 times.”

Since Tuesday’s loss, Temple announced sophomore
Maya Dayan, who hadn’t played this season, is returning to Israel and leaving
the squad.

Meanwhile,
Saint Joseph’s is still rolling and finally ended Princeton’s recent mastery
over the Hawks with a 74-65 win in the four-time defending Ivy champions’
Jadwin Gym.

The Hawks
are defending champions of the Atlantic Ten.

Saint Joseph’s
(5-1), now being recognized as one of the top mid-major teams in the country, ended
Princeton’s 21-game home-winning streak.

Senior Erin
Shields had 18 points for the Hawks in the battle that was also between two of
the 10-team PhilahoopsW group while Sarah Fairbanks continued her hot tear with
16 points, a total matched by teammate Ilze Gotfrida.

Alex
Wheatley scored 14 points for Princeton (2-3), which is in the first phase of
the first season in the post-Niveen Rasheed era. Michelle Miller scored 13
points, and Kristen Helmstetter scored 12.

“I think at
this point in the season we have to be a work in progress,” said Princeton
coach Courtney Banghart, whose team has now been hit with two revenge setbacks
counting Rutgers’ season-opening win up in Piscataway, N.J.

“I thought
there was growth in some areas on the offensive end. We’re not there yet, but
it was a step forward which is what we have to be doing every day.”

The Hawks are up 10-2 in the series but
Princeton won the last two seasons.

That catches
up with everything played to date so it is time to look to the immediate
future.

Looking
Ahead

Tournaments
played Friday and continue on Saturday or Sunday have already been spoken to.

Meanwhile,
Temple hosts Oakland Saturday at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall, to be part of the
Guru’s triple header for Saturday considering the travel back to Brooklyn.

La Salle
hosts Central Connecticut at 1:30 p.m., a date originally listed for the
Explorers’ Big Five game with Penn that has been moved to Monday night at 7
p.m.

Delaware is
at Central Florida’s tournament in Orlando and opponents are predetermined with
the Blue Hens meeting SIU-Edwardsville Saturday and Howard on Sunday.

Princeton is
at Portland State Saturday and host Oregon on Sunday.

Also on
Sunday Saint Joseph’s is at Quinnipiac and that will finish getting St. Joseph’s
and Temple ready for their early season clash in the City Series Wednesday 5:30
p.m. in McGonigle Hall.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Mike Siroky's SEC Report: All Teams Have Reason to beThankful

The Southeastern Conference women’s teams kept the league elite in the latest week of competition.

But there are certainly things beyond the games that affect us all.

One of Kentucky’s opponents this week has had a direct impact from the Midwest tornadoes.

Bradley is in Peoria, Illinois. Central Illinois was devastated, even if Peoria itself was spared. East Peoria, Washington and Pekin, all adjacent communities, were leveled.

All Bradley teams have spent time working on cleanup. The game pales when real life intervenes. It is a life lesson beyond the court and scores.

In the true college attitude of sportsmanship and caring, Bradley reached out to an alumni who runs a T-shirt concern. He produced a shirt, “Central Illinois Strong,” which the Bradley women wore in the pre-game shootaround at Lexington.

They are for sale for $10. The money all goes to Red Cross relief efforts in the Midwest. The website: www.bradley.edu/tornadorelief.

Perhaps as a balance, the team did receive good news. Coach Michael Brooks missed the most important game of his young career and certainly of Bradley’s season, as he was delivered the birth of his son, Jase, on the eve of the game.

Now we resume our regular programming.

As the holiday seasons dawn for 2013, SEC teams are giving and giving and giving . . . mostly defeats to teams from other conferences.

The Associated Press ranked teams in the SEC are 35-1 so far; as an example of the SEC strength, Texas A&M is the third-best team in the conference, yet ranked better than any Big Ten team.

The best conference in America remains so until the conference showdowns start next month.

How those ranked team fared in a holiday week:

•Kentucky: The No. 7 Wildcats love beating teams from neighbor state Tennessee and the drubbing of Middle Tennessee State in its first road game of the season was no exception, an 84-72 walkover.

For what it’s worth, MT had won the past two meetings.

There is becoming a sense of regularity for UK this season. The same starters have worked every game. Super rookie Linnae Harper is the first off the bench.

Coach Matt Mitchell used all 11 players and nine scored, led by junior guard Bria Goss’ 16. For the fifth of six games, junior Jennifer O’Neill hit double figures, with 14, like Goss a season high. Senior Kastine Evans 5-of-7 from the field and 15 points.

Enough of the blue road uniforms, UK came right back to campus and demolished Bradley to move to 7-0. Kentucky has the best margin of victory in the league, better than 41 per game, and best turnover margin, more than 17 per game.

In the Bradley game, UK sprinted to a 59-32 halftime edge as senior center Samarie Walker had 10 rebounds to go with her 14 points.

It was time for Mitchell to start getting the bench playing time for those games in which they will really be needed.

The 117-77 win gave him plenty of opportunities. The Wildcats are 42-0 when passing 100 points. All 11 played and all 11 scored.

"Bradley wanted to play at a high pace, play fast and I thought they did some nice things," Mitchell said. “We had a good handle on that. That’s what they do and how they play. We anticipated a fast-paced game.

“We had some breakdowns with our press today that led to them getting into a good tempo. The entire Bradley team pushed the pace and they're a tough team to play against.”

Still, in a comparison with SEC and other leagues, Bradley is the best-scoring team in the Missouri Valley, exceeded their average by three and still couldn’t make a game of it.

Walker finished with 22 points, one of a half-dozen Wildcats in double figures. Next-best was O’Neill, with 14. Another reserve, Harper, had 10.

Sunday’s game with No. 4 Louisville is sold out, with 8,000 expected.

•Tennessee: Winless Oakland at No. 3 Tennessee finished about they way anyone would expect, 84-50.

Lady Vol coach Holly Warlick continues to play with her team’s minds. She benched three starts to start the second half and that caused a 21-0 runaway.

Starter and sophomore forward Bashaara Graves – not one of those benched, scored 15 with 11 rebounds. Senior guard Meighan Simmons – who was benched to start the second half -- scored 14.

“The second half, we settled down and we decided to play, but the sign of a great team is we’ve got to play 40 minutes,” Warlick observed. “We’re very capable of it. We’ve got the talent to do it. I’m just waiting for us to bust out and play the perfect game.”

Then they actually played on Thanksgiving Day at the Junkanoo Jam, in a high school gym in the Bahamas. They must have eaten well.

UT started out in typical sluggish fashion, behind by four at the break.

So distraught was Warlick that she picked up a technical with 2.9 seconds to go in the half. It added to her halftime fire. The three free throws also made the deficit more than one point.

"She said I disrespected the officials," Warlick said of the ref who called the T. "I didn't think I said enough. It's her opinion. Stupid on my part."

UT responded, with a 25-13 run to start the final minutes and held on, 76-67.Simons hit eight 3-pointers and finished with 31, her season best by 17.

As we have said earlier, she’ll be the offensive motor once the SEC season starts. Junior point guard Ariel Massengale had 13 assists and 10 points as UT moved to 6-0.

Simmons, who hadn't scored more than 14 points in a game this season, finished two off her career high.

"That's Meighan Simmons," said Massengale. "She's been having a tough time shooting, but shooters have to shoot their way out of it."

The defense shut Virginia down to 32 percent from the floor in the second half. Perhaps Tennessee is lucky that less than 500 fans showed.

They were to finish the Junkaroo then take a week off.

•Texas A&M: The No. 12 Aggies also played on Thanksgiving, but did so in the swell climate of the Virgin Islands, starting a tournament called the Paradise Jam.

No women players dunked, but A&M did jam up Memphis.

It was a six-point halftime lead and a little less in the second half, but it added up to a 10-point win.

Like so many of his league counterparts, coach Gary Blair is finding out about depth, as different players seem to step up each game. This time, it was Akiri Scott, with a career-high 19 and Karla Gilbert’s first double-double, 18 points and 14 rebounds.

We didn’t execute in the first half,” said Blair. “Their initial offense, we would stop, but we kept fouling when the play broke down. Aside from the breakaway layups, I thought we did a good job defensively in the second half.”

“We’ll take it as a win, and we have our hands full the next two games with good teams.”

They are 4-0. They play Texas and Syracuse before coming home for December.

•South Carolina: Finally out of state, the 17th-ranked Gamecockskept San Diego State winless.

Staying on the left coast holiday tour, the real challenge was supposed to be undefeated (but unranked) Southern Cal at their place.

Against San Diego State, freshman center Alaina Coates scored a game-high 21 on 5-of-6 from the field and 11-of-15 from the line, with a team-high eight rebounds.

Three other players for the Gamecocks (6-0) were in double digits including freshman guard Tiffany Mitchell with 17, sophomore swingman Asia Dozier with 16, and sophomore guard Khadjah Sessions with 12.

It was the sixth win of 20 or more points.

SC even helped San Diego State by scoring the first three of their points.

Game officials had the teams lined up to shoot at the incorrect baskets and sophomore guard Asia Dozier hit a 3, credited to the home team, once the kerfluffle was discovered and the teams redirected.

They moved onto L.A. and another 20-point win. If was Mitchell with a career-best 22 points (10-of-13 from the line), six rebounds, five steals and four assists as they moved to 7-0. A 40-26 second half did it. Welch had 14 points and six rebounds.

With five winnable games left before the league season starts, the real SC has a shot at being 12-0 by then. The best field goal percentage in the league (.496) helps a lot.

•Georgia: Georgia Tech, having already lost its national moxie against Tennessee, now has lost the braggin’ rights in state. The No. 22 Lady ’Dawgs continued the season-opening homestand with two more wins, Tech being first up.

Georgia won the first half by seven and only had to match the output in the second for a 63-56 win.

Senior guard Khaalidah Miller scored 20 and Schacobia Barbee 14.

The last of the home turkeys to be basted was South Carolina State.

Georgia, with the best field-goal percentage defense in the league, .265, stopped State and ran its opening record to 6-0. Ericka Ford scored a career-best 23, on 9-of-10 from the field. A 16-0 first-half run decided it early.

“We didn't shoot it well tonight and didn't shoot it well from 3 (8-of-25),” said Georgia coach Andy Landers. “Erika shot it very well, but we got excellent 3-point shot attempts and didn’t knock them down.”

They did, however hit season highs as a team from the field (27-of-55) and free throw line (12-of-16), also getting 31 points off 20 forced turnovers. The backboards battle was won by Georgia as well, 35-23.

In keeping with the experimental theme of the pre-league season, Landers started freshman Halle Washington, the 74th rookie to start for Landers all-time and the second this season, following teammate Sydnei McCaskill.

“We’ve got to stop kicking the can down the road,” Landers observed.

“Turnovers were really a sore spot, especially the manner in which we got them. We're passing the ball to people where the ball is hitting them in the hands and they’re not catching them. There weren’t that many poorly thrown passes but to have 21 turnovers against a zone, against anybody, is inexcusable.

“This wasn’t an aggressive zone it was a passive zone. We called for the ball and passed it to the person that called for it and they didn't catch it.

“I’m glad Erika played well because honestly there’s not that many people you can say that about.”

•LSU: There was a time when Louisiana Tech was nationally feared with Dennis Rodman’s older sister Deborah was the best center in America.

Now, they also can’t even win the title of best in state.

Those were VHS days and this is a live-on-the-Internet era, with Tech’s best former player coaching Baylor to national titles.

No. 15 LSU took a nice 12-point halftime lead and each side scored 39 in the second half of an 81-69 LSU win. The defense held Tech to 29 percent from the field.

Guards Raigyne Moncrief (17 points) and Jeanne Kennedy (13) combined for 30. Kennedy had seven rebounds and Moncrief five as LSU moved to 3-1, all the games so far at home. It is the eighth straight win over Tech and finally gives LSU the all-time edge, 15-14.

It did get ugly in the fierce rivalry. A fight broke out among players, with 13 minutes left. Officials reviewed the video and ejected junior guard DaShawn Harden and sophomore guard Danielle Ballard of LSU and TyJae' Chenevert of Louisiana Tech.

Harden had been fouled during a rebound by Chenevert, then Ballard got involved when the two tussled, as did several players from each team

Ballard and Harden did not make the trip up North this weekend when LSU will open with Rutgers Friday and then meet either Texas Tech or Mchigan Saturday in the Battle of Brooklyn at the still relatively new Barclays Center, that is the home of the NBA Nets.

LSU coach Nikki Caldwell did say she didn't aggree with the penalty that occurred.

There were 65 fouls called in the entirety, with 48 free throws awarded.

“I was proud of our team for staying together,” said LSU coach Nikki Caldwell.

“Our bench gave us a tremendous spark. We stayed poised when adversity hit. Our team will grow from this type of game.”

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

COLLEGE
PARK, Md. – Drexel freshman Alexis Smith finally made it in uniform Monday
night to the floor of the Comcast Center where she would venture up from nearby
Calvert County to dream of the future while watching powerful Maryland in action.

Making the
most of a dream come true, she and another Dragons newcomer in Media’s Sarah
Curran made parts of the evening a nightmare for the No. 8 Terrapins with
career highs in scoring until a terrific rally died in the closing stretch and
Maryland escaped with a 69-63 victory in the nonconference matchup.

Smith
finished with 19 points and Curran, part of the ongoing flow of players from
Archbishop Carroll, scored 16 points.

“Coming back
to Maryland, I thought I was going to be nervous about it because I had all my
families and friends were coming,” Smith said. “But once I got on the court, I
just calmed down and played basketball, how we know how to play and how I know
how to play myself.

“I would do
just anything to get my team back in the game and the intensity level up
higher. I grew up watching Maryland play so it was cool, the team I grew up
watching, I got to play them.”

Rachel
Pearson and Meghan Creighton, who also played for Carroll in Philadelphia’s
Catholic League in the suburbs, each scored nine points for Drexel (2-3) while
Abby Redick, whose brother played for Terrapins rival Duke in the Atlantic
Coast Conference wars , scored eight points.

In the only
other game of the night involving any of the 10-team PhilahoopsW group that is
part of the Guru’s local Division I coverage, La Salle also had a second-half
rally short-circuited at Fairfield as the Explorers fell 64-59 to finish with a
split on the two-game back-to-back road trip

Down here
Drexel nearly evaporated all of a 16-point deficit from the first half, but
could not make more inroads after reducing the deficit to three late in the
contest.

“Once the
three-ball started falling (Drexel shot 11-for-25), that helps a great deal in
cutting the lead. And just making shots (they were 53.6 percent in the second
half) gives you some confidence,” Drexel coach Denise Dillon said.

“It was a
tough game as we knew it would be,” she said. “We just got outmatched size wise
and in a number of positions.

“I thought
our second half obviously was much better and the team didn’t quit and
continued to play and I think it was a great learning experience overall.”

While the
Dragons have had trouble playing local teams in the early phase of the season,
losing to Villanova in Toledo’s tournament in Ohio and at Saint Joseph’s last
Wednesday, they seem more battle ready playing national powers.

“When we
lost to Saint Joseph’s and Villanova, we’re so familiar with each other – their
systems and styles, the players just having their connections with high school
and AAU, they all know each other,” Dillon explained.

“With the
case of Maryland, it’s the unknown, you don’t know what you are going up
against. It’s not the emotional battle. Just let’s go out there and fight and see
what we can do. But certainly, the shots falling, that helps.”

A year ago
Drexel took Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team into overtime in Columbia at the
Gamecocks’ arena and twice narrowly almost brought down Colonial Athletic
Association rival Delaware at the Blue Hens’ arena and on a neutral site in the
title game of the conference tournament.

‘`As a young
team when you play a top 10 team in the country what do you have to lose?”
Dillon said. “And I think that is a mentality you need to have every day at
practice. We need to learn in order to get better and what can we do to give
ourselves a chance.

“For our
freshmen, yeah, it’s the first time they’re playing a Top 10 team, but for the
players returning, we have found ourselves in position to play some of those
teams. So, again it is not new, but it is for this team,” Dillon continued.

“So let’s
continue to learn and grow and continue with what really matters is conference
play.”

Playing the
freshmen a lot is an attempt to make up for the loss of scoring punch from
former stars Hollie Mershon, who graduated from the WNIT champions and is
playing overseas, and Taylor Wootton, who is on the staff after her graduation as coordinator of basketball operations.

“We joke
about it and say by January you are no longer freshmen,” Dillon said. “But we
figure the number of minutes they will see leading up to conference play (the
Dragons are picked second in the CAA), they cannot play like freshmen anymore.

“We’re
relying on them. The one thing that helps with this team being so
inexperienced, the support and encouragement is tremendous.”

Smith
pointed out,” I can’t have a freshman mentality. I just have to go out there
and know, like, what I’m supposed to do.”

As for
Maryland (5-1), perhaps the Terrapins didn’t have as much concern as they did
several weeks ago hosting top-ranked Connecticut, which handed them their only
loss of the season.

Nevertheless,
the firepower and talent was enough to overcome the Dragons as Alyssa Thomas,
likely to go quite high in the first round of the WNBA draft, had 21 points and
14 rebounds, while freshman guard Shatori Walker-Kimbraugh scored 12 points off
the bench.

The
Terrapins dominated the paint 38-18 and also in second chance points 21-8.

“I’m proud
of our team and how we finished,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “To be
tested this early, you get to see a lot about your team.

“But I
thought Drexel was terrific.”

The Dragons
are off until they visit Colgate in a nonconference game on Dec. 4. Drexel beat
the squad last season as part of capturing an early Thanksgiving tournament at
Long Island University in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Explorers
Fall to Fairfield

La Salle
trimmed a 32-17 halftime deficit connecting on 42 of 59 field goals the rest of
the way but it was not enough to in the state of Connecticut to overcome the host
Stags (3-2), a former rival when the Explorers were in the Metro Atlantic
Athletic Conference before switching to the Atlantic 10.

Khristin Lee
had her first double double since enrolling at La Salle (1-3), scoring 15 of
her 17 points in the second half while also grabbing 10 rebounds for the game.

Lee also was
tops in the game with four steals and tops on the team in assists with five.

Alicia
Cropper scored 13 points and Jasmine Alston, a newcomer, had nine points, five
rebounds, three steals and did not commit any turnovers.

The
Explorers, who host Central Connecticut Saturday and Penn next Monday,
completed a two-day back-to-back road trip, getting their first win of the
season at Manhattan in Riverdale, N.Y., on Sunday.

Kristin
Schatzlein had 15 points for Fairfield.

Honors

Sarah
Fairbanks of Saint Joseph’s was named the Big Five women’s basketball player of
the week while Delaware newcomer Erika Brown was the rookie of the week in the
CAA.

Looking
Ahead

There are
just two games Tuesday night with two PhilahoopsW teams, both defending
conference champions, meetking each other in one while Temple will host No. 21
Michigan State in the other at 7 p.m. at McGonigle Hall as the Owls seek to
stay unbeaten and enhance their visibility nationally.

Earlier at
5:30 p.m., four-time defending Ivy champion Princeton, picked to win the league
again, will host Saint Joseph’s, the defending champions of the Atlantic 10.

The host
Tigers, who play in Jadwin Gym, have had the Hawks’ number in recent seasons.
But with two-time Ivy player Niveen Rasheed graduated and playing pro ball in
Europe, Saint Joseph’s may be able to take advantage of Princeton’s work in
progress.

Poll Trivia

Nebraska
moving into 10th in the Associated Press women’s poll is the first
appearance at the elite level of the media voting since finishing in the top
five of the 2009-10 season when current WNBA star Kelsey Griffin with the
Connecticut Sun led the Cornhuskers to one of their best records.

Notre Dame,
ranked fifth again this week, tied Baylor for 11th place with most
Top Five appearances in the AP Poll at 82.

Stanford
coach Tara Vanderveer, who is approaching 900 wins, made her 450th
career poll appearance coaching the Cardinal and previously Ohio State.

That is it
until coverage of Tuesday’s two games. No one plays Wednesday though the Guru
has been called for Jury Duty.

Monday, November 25, 2013

VILLANOVA, Pa. – After being the swisher in Villanova’s
previous win, senior Devon Kane was the disher Sunday in dealing a career-high
eight assists as the Wildcats won their home opener Sunday 60-33 in a
nonconference game against Lafayette of the Patriot League.

Kane scored
the final 19 points, including a shot to force overtime, Wednesday in the
Wildcats’ nonconference win at Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn., the second
straight overtime win following the recent triumph at Lehigh.

It looked at
first like Kane might just keep going when she made the first shot of the game
for a 2-0 lead and 21 straight points.

The outcome
saw Lafayette (4-1) suffer its first loss while Villanova stayed unbeaten at
5-0.

That Villanova won-loss record is the best
start since a 6-0 burst at the outset of the magical 2002-03 season when the
Wildcats went on to upset Connecticut to win the Big East and stop the
then-Huskies’ NCAA record win streak at 70 games.

The Wildcats
almost pulled another record in this one, moving from a slim 29-28 lead at the
half to clamping down the Leopards the rest of the way for a 31-5 advantage that
allowed just two points more than the NCAA record of three for fewest points
allowed in a half. That happened twice.

“Our defense
was lacking in the first half so we picked it up in the second half and we didn’t
score very much so it was good,” said Kane, a graduate of Notre Dame Academy near
Villanova who also played for the AAU Comets.

Kane has played in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League as did several Lafayette players in the offseason.

Carolline
Coyer had a game-high 12 points for Villanova, while her twin sister Katherine
scored 10 as did Lauren Burford and Kavunaa Edwards, who completed her first double
double by grabbing 14 rebounds.

Edwards’s
rebound total was a career-high and the most by a Wildcats player since Laura
Kurz grabbed 15 against Lehigh, where she now is an assistant coach, on Dec. 7,
2008.

Villanova was
leading 35-32 when the Wildcats went on and outscored Lafayette 25-1 over the
final 15 minutes as the Leopards shot just 2-for-25 in the second half.

“We got
outside ourselves,” Lafayette coach Dianne Nolan from Gloucester in South
Jersey said. “It’s the first time this year we played so bad.”

Jamie O’Hare
had a team-high nine points for the Leopards with Villanova stopping anyone
from scoring in double figures.

“They’re
very much improved,” Villanova coach Harry Perretta said. “They struggled very
much in the second half not making any shots but we had a half like that once
in the NCAA tournament against Utah, I think we scored 10 points.

“But I
thought they played well. They’re much more experienced. We panicked in the
first half and committed a lot of dumb fouls but in the second half we settled
down and played a lot smarter.”

A new
assistant at Lafayette this season is former ABL/WNBA post player great Yolands
Griffith, who will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville,
Tenn., in June.

She was a
previous assistant to longtime Dartmouth coach Chris Wielgus, who left after
last season.

“We had an
opening when (former Saint Joseph’s star) Kim Foley went to join (new coach and
former Hawks star) Debbie Black at Eastern Illinois,” Nolan said. “Chris and I
talked and thought Yolanda would be a good fit here.”

Meanwhile, only three of the 10-team
PhilahoopsW teams in the Guru’s local Division I coverage group played Sunday
and all three won with La Salle topping host Manhattan 72-62 in Riverdale, N.Y,
while Delaware continued its winning ways in the opening weeks of the
post-Elena Delle Donne era by triumphing 65-54 at Rider.

Edwards was
one of three players to top the previous season-high of 13 rebounds among players
on PhilahoopsW teams.

Delaware (4-1),
which had three players grabbed 10 or more rebounds to make the Guru’s
season-long Baskets and Boards charts, saw red-shirt sophomore Joy Caracciolo
grabbed 19 while Kelsey Buchanan had 15, and Courtni Green grab 10.

Caracciolo’s
and Buchanan’s totals were career highs.

Villanova
next travels to Florida International’s tournament in Miami, playing Montana
State in the first round Friday and then either the host team or Valparaiso on
Saturday.

After that, the
Wildcats return home to host Saint Joseph’s on Dec. 7, the first of three
straight Big Five games, followed by road stops at La Salle and Temple as they
attempt to defend last season’s title in the City Series round robin.

Villanova,
which earlier this month won in overtime at Lehigh, a Patriot League and nearby
rival of Lafayette, can claim the Pennsylvania Turnpike Extension trophy for
topping teams from Bethlehem and Easton an hour away to the north.

Perretta’s
Wildcats made the E-Z pass in getting 18 assists to take their toll of Lafayette.

La Salle Takes Manhattan

The
Explorers (1-2) won their first game of the year, a nonconference triumph on
the road beating the Jaspers 72-62 by mounting a 19-4 run midway through the
second half.

La Salle had
dropped its first two games, losing to Temple in the season-opener at home
after holding a lead in the second half, and then having a rally wasted a week
ago at Rutgers, which won on a shot just before time expired in regulation.

Kristin Lee
and Alicia Cropper each scored 17 points against Manhattan (1-3), while Micayha Owens scored 12 points and
Siobhan Beslow had a near double double double with nine points and a game-high
eight rebounds.

The only
other PhilahoopsW team in action Monday is Drexel, which will travel to No. 8
Maryland in College Park in a nonconference game the Guru will cover and tweet
live, gruesome as it may be for the Dragons.

The host Terrapins,
who have only lost to Connecticut in a home game a week ago Friday, could have
a new ranking number by game time considering the next Associated Press women’s
poll will be released late Monday morning or early afternoon.

Delaware Rides the Broncos

Most of the
Blue Hens’ work has already been mentioned above in the Villanova coverage
concerning Delaware beating Rider 65-54 in Lawrenceville, N.J. near where the
Blue Hens will return next month to meet defending four-time Ivy League
champion Princeton.

The rebounding totals alluded to contributed
to a season-high 63 amassed Sunday against 38 by Rider (1-4) of the Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference and Caracciolo’s 14 points led to her first double
double with the 19 rebounds.

Delaware
rallied in this one after trailing 41-36 and then launching a 17-4 run before closing
out the win by making six straight foul shots.

MyNeshia
McKenzie had 21 points and nine rebounds for Rider.

“We’re young
and we’re going to do silly things,” Delaware coach Tina Martin said, alluding
to 12 missed foul shots. “When we had to, we made our free throws and when we
had to, we executed.

“The bottom
line is, we came out with a (11-point) win (she said nine in the actual quote
supplied by Delaware) and obviously we did what we needed to do to get the
victory,” Martin continued. “So, that’s all good stuff and I’m really happy
with that, but we also have so much to improve on … We will get better.”

Buchanan has
scored double figures in all five games this season while Delaware has won 11
of the last 12 games in the nonconference series with Rider.

The Blue
Hens next head to Central Florida’s Thanksgiving Classic in Orlando but
opponents in both games are pre-determined with Delaware meeting SIU Edwardsville
on Saturday and then Howard on Sunday while not playing the host school, which
this season became part of the American Conference.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

(Guru note: A
Notre Dame angle on the Penn game was written for hoopfeed.com, which will be
posted soon enough if you don’t see it yet. Doug Feinberg has the double spin
Guru approach if you google his name or follow him @dougfeinberg to get the links.
And Jonathan Tannenwald wrote for Philly.com while Glenn Papazian wrote at his
philacollegehoops website.)

By Mel
Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA
– In a sense, a theme in local women’s basketball akin to the first Rocky movie
played out at Penn’s Palestra Saturday afternoon though unlike the fictional
boxer’s training regimen in climbing up the steps of the Art Museum, no one was
seen doing likewise in the fabled arena.

The plot
actually began last season with heavyweight Notre Dame about to move from the
former Big East configuration to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

That meant,
for the moment, no more homecoming trips for Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw,
a former Saint Joseph’s star in the late 1970s, because Villanova was no longer
going to be a conference foe.

So who to
play? Who to give a shot because the one thing McGraw did not want to do is put
up with the Wildcats’ unique style of slow motion pass crazy offense in a
nonconference setting.

Temple? Nah,
could be a little risky.

But then the
idea struck, call the alma mater and maybe call Penn of the Ivy League. They got
the Palestra and had been to South Bend, Ind., to visit Notre Dame several
years ago.

As for Mike
McLaughlin, who has dramatically revived the Quakers’ fortunes in his five
years since guiding Holy Family in the city’s northeast as a Division II
national force, why not?

“I know it
was important to her to get back here,” McLaughlin said after the Quakers gave
a competitive accounting of themselves in a 76-54 nonconference loss to the fifth-ranked
Irish (4-0).

“To bring a top five team in The Palestra with
all the history, for Penn basketball this was awesome for us,” he added. “I think
it was awesome for our program to get a team like that in our facility.
Hopefully, we’ve done enough to get some people back. I thought our players
captured the moment and stepped to the challenge.”

In terms of
growing the game in general, McLaughlin said, “I’m going to do my part. If I
can get somebody like Notre Dame to come back again, I think it grows the game.
You saw the people out there today. If we can bring Notre Dame, or Stanford, or
some other high academic institution, I’m all for it.”

Penn, which
had been sitting idle for two weeks since a season-opening upset loss,
first-ever, to St. Francis of Brooklyn, started hyping this game last summer
when the date was sealed.

“The reality
is we’re playing against a talented team and successful program,” McLaughlin
said of the matchup. “There’s no moral victories. The things we could control
we did really well. To sit here and I told (his players) to compete at this
level for 40 minutes without many mental breakdowns is a tremendous
accomplishment.”

It also was
a tremendous improvement from the opener, which senior star Alyssa Baron said
the Quakers shook off pretty quick.

“We know we
didn’t play well. That was a knock in the head and a wakeup call and after that
our practices really improved getting ready for this.”

The
atmosphere was electric among the 1,025 fans in The Palestra and though the
football team had started play two hours earlier next door in Franklin Field,
the band and cheerleaders split their contingents to cover both events.

Penn (0-2)
played well enough that in a similar performance this particular season they
would contend in all four of their Big Five games and could make noise in the
Ivies where they were picked third by the league coaches behind four-time
defending champion Princeton and Harvard.

Baron defended
Notre Dame’s Jewel Loyd into a 4-for-13 effort from the field, though Loyd still
finished in double digits with 12 points.

With the graduation
of Skylar Diggins, one of the Notre Dame all-timers, to star rookie stature in
the WNBA, attention turns even more to Kayla McBride, the native of Erie, Pa.,
who had game highs of 15 points and nine rebounds.

Irish rookie
sensation Taya Reimer had 14 points off the bench, which also had another
reserve score in double digits as Michaela Mabrey scored 14 points.

Lindsay
Allen drew praise from McGraw in shooting 3-for-4 from the field and scoring eight
points to make up for Loyd’s struggles.

The big
news, considering the schedule just ahead for the Irish, was the return of
Natalie Achonwa, the Canadian who missed the first three games rehabbing from
knee surgery.

McGraw
thought Achonwa “looked a little rusty and we played her a little more than I
wanted to,” McGraw said. “But we really needed her.”

Penn had a
lot of fight against the Big East champions of last season and Final Four
participant hanging tough until McBride snapped an 8-8 tie to send Notre Dame
on an 11-0 run.

The Quakers,
however, would close it to four points before Notre Dame finished the half to
go up 34-22. In the final stanza the Irish got the differential as wide as 23
points but Penn was able to stop things from approaching massacre levels.

That was
particularly impressive, considering the numbers the Irish had put up against
three previous opponents.

When Notre
Dame hit its first 15 shots during warm-ups, it was suggested to a Penn fan
fearing the worst that to just look at the game as Penn playing a WNBA farm
club, considering notables the Irish have sent to the pros.

The Quakers
are missing Keiera Ray, who is rehabbing from a knee injury, which is costing
some scoring punch.

If the Notre
Dame football and men’s basketball programs have their adjunct subway alumni
fans in New York City, then McGraw has her SEPTA alumni here, though in the
future they will have to switch from rail travel to the Main Line and Villanova
to city transit trains and buses or subways to get to here and Saint Joseph’s.

“It’s really
special to be back in Philly,” McGraw said. “It’s such a great town. It’s a
great building to be in and the tradition is unbelievable here. We’re going to
go downtown and see a little history on our way to the airport.

“Penn played
really hard,” McGraw lauded the Quakers. “They played with a lot of toughness.”

McLaughlin
said of his team’s stand, “Defense starts with effort and willing defenders who
want to play the game the right way. We tried to press them into a zone but
they get the ball out of the net so fast that we didn’t do that as much as we
anticipated.

“Structurally
we did as well as we could. Kara Bonenberger played very well. They got some
very talented kids and we made them work for everything they got.”

Over the
next week Notre Dame will host DePaul, a former Big East foe that remains a
regional rival. Then it will be on to Toronto near Achonwa’s hometown to play
Atlantic 10 contending Duquesne of Pittsburgh.

Another
sentimental moment will occur for McGraw on Dec. 4 when the Irish travel to No.
4 Penn State, the regular season defending Big 10 champions, in a conference
challenge between the Big 10 and ACC.

That means
for the first time McGraw will face Penn State coach Coquese Washington, one of
her former star players who later became her associate head coach prior to
landing the job in Happy Valley in the spring of 2007.

“We were on
the phone the day before the pairings came out for the challenge and Muffet and
I said we bet we’d be made to play each other,” Washington said recently.

Though much
ado was made over Notre Dame’s visit Saturday, the Irish were here once before
back on Dec. 18, 1981, when they were a recently minted Division I program –
akin to an expansion team – and the Quakers played to a 25-25 tie at the half before
the Irish took over for a 62-47 victory.

Ironically,
the coach at the time was Mary Distanislao, a former Immaculata assistant who
went on to lead Northwestern to national ranking stature before being hired by
then-athletic director Digger Phelps, also the men’s basketball coach.

McGraw, who
was an assistant to Jim Foster on Hawk Hill, also coached at Archbishop Carroll
and a five-year run at Lehigh before taking the helm at Notre Dame.

She replaced
Distanislao, who went on to a long run at Penn as the Quakers senior women’s
administrator in the athletic department who hired McLaughlin.

After
leaving Holy Family, McLaughlin won only two games his first season at Penn,
but the Quakers have improved every year and advanced to the semifinals of the
postseason Women’s Basketball Invitational in March.

“We have a
lot to learn but it was a great stepping stone against a very talented team,”
said Meghan McCulloch, who missed the last 28 games last year with an injury.

Penn is off
on another break – this time until Dec. 2 when the Quakers launch their Big 5
schedule traveling to La Salle.

Looking
to the Ivy schedule after 2014 arrives, McLaughlin said of his newcomers, “The
freshmen that saw this level of talent, this great atmosphere that can only
help them.

“They’re going
to have understand they have to raise their level – not only game but at
practice – but if they see that, it will be a tremendous stepping stone for
them – the way these kids want to improve every day. In this environment, against
this kind of talent, even watching it, they should learn very well.”

In the only two other games Saturday involving
any of the local 10-team PhilahoopsW group in the Guru’s area Division I coverage
Saint Joseph’s turned aside Liberty 77-65 at home in Hagan Arena while
Princeton fell at Georgetown 66-64 in McDonough Arena in the nation’s capital
on Natalie Butler’s shot with three seconds left in regulation.

Both were nonconference
games.

Saint Joseph’s
(4-1), the defending Atlantic 10 champions, next travels to Princeton (2-2),
the four-time defending Ivy champion and league favorite, on Tuesday in a 5:30
p.m. start in Jadwin Gym that is a key matchup on both sides.

The Hawks
against the winless Flames (0-4) of the Big South Conference got another big
effort from Sarah Fairbanks, who followed up her performance against Drexel
with 20 points Saturday.